Vance Came for a Pastor’s Faith. The Pastor Answered on Tape.
ABC put JD Vance's attack in front of Adam Hamilton. He denied it, then told voters to examine his life.
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 The Record · Kansas Senate ABC put the vice president's attack in front of Adam Hamilton. He denied it, then told voters to examine his life. 94 years Inside By the Numbers · A Line You Cannot Check · Who's Hiring · Watch · BTP · Sources JD Vance did not stop at Adam Hamilton's politics. He went after the man's faith. Hamilton is a pastor and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kansas. On October 11, ABC's This Week put the attack in front of him, and Jonathan Karl asked him to answer it. He did not pivot. He answered on camera, and what he did with that answer is the story. Watch first:Hamilton answers the faith attack By the Numbers
 A Line You Cannot Check. A Life You Can.Fight a candidate on what he would do with the job and you are doing politics. Tell voters what a pastor does or does not believe and you are doing something cheaper. You are asking them to take your word about the inside of another man's chest. You know what usually happens next. The candidate smiles, says he will not be distracted, and pivots to a line somebody tested in a conference room. Hamilton went the other way. He said the vice president does not know him and does not know anything about his faith, and he called the attack desperate and sad, all of it in ABC's transcript. Then came the second hit: a cattle-and-beef accusation. Aim that at a man running in Kansas and you are not making small talk. You are leaning on farm country and making a pastor answer for it on national television. Hamilton called every line of it false, and his answer was this plain: “No, it’s not a sin to raise cattle and eat meat.” He said he never talked about repenting for eating beef. In the same interview he talked about diesel costing Kansas agriculture $6.40 a gallon. That is his number, not a national price, and it is the kind of thing a Senate race in Kansas is supposed to be about. Now slow down, because this is the part that matters for your vote. Hamilton denying it does not settle it. A denial is a man's word, same as an attack is a man's word. I have a transcript of a denial, I do not have proof, and I will not sell you one as the other. So look at what he did with his answer. He described his own daily religious practice. He said he has written 36 books on theology, faith and scripture, and ABC reports his United Methodist congregation at about 24,000 members. Those are his claims and ABC's count, and every one of them is the kind of thing a voter can check. Then he said the thing that matters. He told voters to “examine my life” and the way he has tried to live. In plain English: go look. That is the whole fight, and it is bigger than one Senate race. A line about somebody's faith is built so you cannot check it. Nobody can pull a file on a man's soul. The line asks for nothing but your belief, and it costs the person saying it nothing. A life is different. A life leaves a trail: where a man spent his years, how he treated the people around him, what he did when doing right cost him something. You can go find that. You can ask the people who were in the room. I am not telling you what you will find. I am telling you what each man asked of you. One asked you to take his word about another man's faith. The other asked you to check. One asked you to take his word. The other asked you to check. ABC puts the Democratic losing streak for Kansas Senate seats at 94 years. Nobody ends a streak like that on his own say-so, and nobody should. If it ends, it ends because voters did the checking. That is how anybody who wants your vote should treat you, in Kansas or anywhere else. Your rent, your grocery bill, your hospital bill, your kid's school: every one of them gets decided by people who either showed you a record or sold you a line. Get in the habit of demanding the record. So go look. Watch the exchange on ABC. Read the transcript. Then decide for yourself, which is the one thing a cheap line never wants you to do. Jobs Who's hiringReal openings, open when we checked on Oct 13. Pay shown where the employer posts it. Public service Chief Deputy Clerk II Indiana Southern Bankruptcy Court · Indianapolis, IN $126,497 minimumOpen Until FilledPolicy and Legislative Coordinator State of Louisiana · Baton Rouge, LA $65,000 to $85,000 a yearCloses Oct 22Organizing & unions 2027-2029 Aryeh Neier Fellowship Opportunity ACLU - National Office · New York, New York, United States $70,000Senior Director of Compliance Democracy Forward · Washington, District of Columbia, United States $180,000 to $200,000Law & legal aid Legal Intern Summer 2027 Democracy Forward · Washington, District of Columbia, United States $28.85 an hourFellowship Lawyer – Legal Department AFL-CIO · Washington, DC Attorney Advisor Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts · Washington, DC $121,785 minimumCloses Oct 27Any field Customer Support Specialist - Risk Mercury · San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Portland, OR, or Remote within United States $58,900 to $71,600 a yearJunior Business Applications Developer The Battery Network · United States (remote) $75,000 to $95,000 a yearHiring and want to be listed? Reply with the link. BTP doesn't take money for job listings. Watch · BTP Vance Came for a Pastor’s Faith. The Pastor Answered on Tape. The attack and Hamilton's answer, from ABC's This Week, October 11, 2026. Get the next one in your inbox. Join Burn the PlaybookSources
Burn Notice: Anybody can say it. A life has to hold up when somebody checks. Michael |
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